Celebrating 4 Years!!

Today is our 4 year wedding anniversary! Wow the time has flown by! Lets take a look back at the past 4 years!!

Places we've lived:

Columbia, South Carolina (June 2005-June 2006)
Eagan, Minnesota (June 2006-August 2006)
White Lake, Wisconsin (August 2006-May 2007)
Eden Prairie, Minnesota (May 2007- Present)

Jobs we've had:
Nathan:
Student Ministry Associate, Lexington Baptist Church, Lexington, South Carolina
Server, Don Pablo's, Eagan, Minnesota
Student Life Director, Silver Birch Ranch/Nicolet Bible Institute, White Lake, Wisconsin
Youth Outreach Specialist, Treehouse, Chaska, Minnesota

Sarah:
Assistant Manager, Express, Columbia, South Carolina
Assistant Manager, Express, Woodbury, Minnesota
Student Life Director, Silver Birch Ranch/Nicolet Bible Institute, White Lake, Wisconsin
Sales Coordinator, Courtyard by Marriott, Bloomington, Minnesota
Stay at Home Mom, Eden Prairie, Minnesota

Places we've been:
South Carolina
Minnesota
Illinois
North Carolina
Florida
Wisonsin
Ohio
West Virginia
Iowa
Indiana
Tennessee
Kentucky


Vacations we've taken:
Mayan Riviera, Mexico (Honeymoon 2005)
Cruise to Grand Cayman Island, Cozumel Mexico, and Key West Florida (January 2008)

Perhaps biggest of all we've added our son Derek Bruce to our family!!!!


Whew! It's been a crazy four years, but they've been fun too!! I"m looking forward to many many more years of marriage!!!!!! I love you Nathan!!!

Another Baby Welcome!!!

We are welcoming my new niece to the world!!! Makayla Lynn Dowling was born at 4:16 this afternoon at 6 lbs 5 oz and 19.5 inches long!!!! The happy parents are Will and Dalynn!! Congratulations you guys!!!!!!

Food for Thought

So just some bits I've been mulling over...


If someone has the chance to do something awesome and chooses not to do it, is it unsympathetic of me to not want to listen to them complain about it?

Can I tell the obnoxious neighbor kids to turn down the disgusting rap music because I want to have my back door open without exposing my baby son to that crap?

It's June 10th and the sun and warmth have been hiding for a week. Why won't it come back?

It's June 10th and my 4 year wedding anniversary is tomorrow. Where did the time go????

Is it considered rude to ride your EXTREMELY loud motorcycle at midnight down a residential street?

Why is "Wipeout" so entertaining? It's just people falling off ridiculous contraptions all the time, yet it has me in stitches!!

Can I take my 4 month old to Hawaii?

Are we going to get to do anything for our anniversary? Tune in next time to find out. Same Metcalf time, same Metcalf channel!

Is Derek teething?

And last but not least I finally have a niece!!!!!

Where is the Love? Seriously... where is it??

This past Saturday Nathan and I had the privilege of going to the Don't Waste Your Life concert featuring LeCrae, FLAME, Trip Lee, Tedashii, and Sho Baraka. AWESOME concert. But that's not the point of this blog. My mom graciously agreed to babysit Derek so that we could go to the concert. We met my parents at the downtown venue and exchanged kids! :) My sister came to the concert with us, and my parents took Derek back to our house. Due to unforseen circumstances, my parents were late picking Derek up at the concert venue, and as a result he was really hungry by the time they got there. He was crying in his carseat so my mom pulled into our home church's parking lot to feed him since the church was only a few blocks from the venue. As she was standing outside the car with the back door open making the bottle the Saturday evening service let out. People began to walk out to the parking lot and get into their cars. What happens next is completely astounding. Several church members began to give my mother dirty looks. A few walked up to her and told her that she needed to move her car (for no reason, it's not like she was illegally parked) and that the parking lot was only for church members and others could not park there. All this as she was FEEDING A BABY!!!! I have no words to describe how horrified I was. Fortunately my mother has a grace to her personality that is not existant in mine. Those people were lucky it was not me they were talking to. I have a horrible habit of coming up with something rude to say back and I always regret it later. Anyway, my bad habits are not the point of this blog either. The point of this blog is to call on Christians to LOVE EACHOTHER!! It's commanded by Jesus! I mean, come on! This was our home church!! My mother's own church family treated her like garbage when she was in need. I have seriously considered writing a letter to church leadership about this. How can Christians act this way? What if my mother had not been a believer? Our home church is in an area of downtown that is frequented by homeless people and poor people. What if she had been someone from the area just needing a place to pull over and feed her hungry baby? It is absolutely appalling to me that Christians would act this way, especially toward a woman who is feeding a baby! This is why Christians are viewed as hypocrites and holier than thou. How can you go into church, worship the Lord, claim that you love Him, listen to a sermon, then leave and be downright NASTY to a sister in Christ (or any person for that matter)! All that makes you is a white washed tomb. Someone who says "Lord Lord" but sends the beggar on his way with a "God be with you." I am honestly sickened by this behavior. Ok, I think my rant is over. What do you all think? Should I write to the elder board, or am I making a bigger deal out of this than it really is??

More

Since abortion has been on my mind the last couple of days, I thought I would share this video link. It's John Piper's address to President Obama on the topic of abortion. VERY powerful! Check it out!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O68MByaMVdM

Dichotomy of Sadness

Yesterday a man was murdered as he served in his church as an usher. A man walked into the foyer of the church just as the service was starting and shot him. The man's wife was singing in the choir at the time. She was pulled out of the service and when the congregation members heard her scream they knew something had happened. It's so sad. Murders are horrible crimes, and I certainly hope this man's murderer is brought to justice. There is NEVER a cause to murder another person. It is very very sad that this man's family is suffering in the wake of his murder.

Now, that being said, Dr. Tiller was one of the few remaining US physicians still performing late term abortions. There is a measure of irony in his death. The murderer becomes the murdered. His whole livelihood was built around the profound sadness of the deaths of innocent unborn children. The children he killed were not only small clusters of cells, tiny embryos, and small babies who looked more alien that human; they were THIRD TRIMESTER babies!!! Fully formed, with tiny hands and feet, and developed brains. They had eyes, and eyelids, and little noses and mouths. They were sucking their thumbs and turning somersaults in their comfy uterine homes. They were kicking their feet and opening and closing their hands. Their hearts were beating, and their eyes were blinking. They had little ears that could hear muffled sounds from outside the womb. I wonder if they heard their mothers planning their deaths with Dr. Tiller. I think of my baby son sleeping peacefully in his crib. It wasn't too long ago that he was so tiny and dependent on my body. It wrenches my heart to think that I could have still chosen to terminate his life up until he was born a week early. How can a woman do that with the baby moving inside of her? How could a doctor ignore all scientific fact and choose to end a life? Isn't "do no harm" the first part of the Hippocratic oath all doctors take?? It is a strange dichotomy of sadness. Sad that Dr. Tiller was murdered, and sad that so many unborn children were murdered.

For information on abortion awareness and things we can do as Christians in our fight for the unborn children's right to life here are a couple websites to visit!!

www.selfevidenttruth.org
www.abort73.com

I was on a Christian moms message board recently and to make a long thread of conversation short they were talking about sin and Christians and how we deal with it. the thread lead up to this comment...

"Some christians have just lost their ability to be able to speak in ways that people would be interested in or even understand . These Bible thumpers may even know a lot of scriptures, but don't seem to understand the purpose or love behind any of them . People sometimes forget that the Bible is here to serve us and NOT the reverse . The Bible is not a club it's the good news that sets us free. God is not freaked out about "sin". Everyone falls short of their potential . He is interested in us being truly happy and he knows" sin" distracts us . GET YOUR HOPE UP because I see all around a new breed of grace filled people who know the TRUE character of God and know how to communicate the ways of wisdom to others in their actions and words."


Soooooo, I'm going to try to respond to this the way I wish I could respond on the message board. I wouldn't though because I HATE stirring stuff up on a message board. It usually gets me mad in the long run and that isn't constructive!

First of all, she makes it sound like most Christians are out of touch with reality. "Some christians have just lost their ability to be able to speak in ways that people would be interested in or even understand ." Really??? I mean I know a lot of Christians and I don't think that they're uninteresting. I have a lot of non Christian friends and they don't find it hard to understand me... I just don't find this to be a true statement. There are certainly elements of the Christian faith that are hard to understand even for mature believers, but that doesn't make those concepts any less true. Just because something is hard to understand doesn't mean we should water it down or avoid it. It means that we need to step up our efforts to understand!!! Like in school. You don't drop out because the concepts are hard, nor do the teachers water things down. Rather, we step it up and LEARN!!! Let's move on.

"These Bible thumpers may even know a lot of scriptures, but don't seem to understand the purpose or love behind any of them . " Here is an element of truth. There are plenty of people out there who love to throw Bible verses at others without the Holy Spirit behind it. We call them Pharisees. Jesus called them whitewashed tombs. However, there is a prevelant thought in modern evangelical Christianity that we can't use Scripture AT ALL. Using Scripture to correct another brother or sister (or encourage them, or teach them) makes the user automically "holier than thou", pious, arrogant, and a "Bible Thumper." That's why I am so cautious of the writer's statement. If she is truly referring to those people that quote Scripture to bring on guilt,and condemnation, then sure, I agree with this statement. But... part of me wonders if she is of the pursuation that using Scripture for a purpose other than to encourage is wrong. Okay, next!

"People sometimes forget that the Bible is here to serve us and NOT the reverse ." I really want to like this statement because I think I see what she is trying to say. The Bible is God's Word for us. He gave it to us to use as a tool for our Christian walk. And, we serve God, not the Bible directly. But, the reason I can't completely love this statement is because the Bible is GOD'S WORD!! So no, we don't worship the Bible, but the Bible tells us how to worship God!!! I don't know. This is a tricky statement, I'm not sure how to react to it. I agree with it in theory, but in the context of the rest of her post I feel like I wouldn't agree with her in practice...

"The Bible is not a club it's the good news that sets us free." TRUE TRUE TRUE!!!!!!

"God is not freaked out about 'sin'." Hmmmmm, I don't like that the word "sin" is in quotation marks. What is that supposed to mean?? Is she saying sin some made up human thing that God doesn't care about? And what does it mean that "God is not freaked out" by it? He certainly hates sin. he cannot tolerate it. He can't have it in His presence. He is so "freaked out" by sin that He had to send His Son to die so that His blood could cover our sin!! I mean, if she means that God's plan is not thwarted by sin then sure, she is right, but that's not what I think she means. I tend to think that she is downplaying the severity of sin, as evidenced by her next statement.

"Everyone falls short of their potential ." Mmmmm, yes... but sin is soooooooo much more than that! Our very nature is utterly and totally depraved. DEPRAVED!!! That is so much worse than just falling short of our potential. If it was just a matter of falling short of our potential would Jesus have had to die for that??? Seriously. Sin is a serious enough matter to warrant the death of God's only Son!!!

"He is interested in us being truly happy and he knows" sin" distracts us ." Oh no, don't even get me started on all the things wrong with this statement. God is interested in us being truly happy????? No, God is interested in us worshipping Him. Only when we are doing that are we truly happy. My pastor is fond of saying "God is most glorified in us when we are most satisfied in Him." See, the cheif end of man is not to be happy but to glorify God! So no, God is not interested in us being truly happy unless we are truly happy in glorifying Him!! :)

"GET YOUR HOPE UP because I see all around a new breed of grace filled people who know the TRUE character of God and know how to communicate the ways of wisdom to others in their actions and words." I see a new breed of Christians as well. I just don't think we are seeing the same ones. I hope she is referring to Christians who speak the truth in love, the key here being speaking the truth!! Unfortuantely too many Christians speak love and eliminate truth. Speaking the truth in love is hard to do, but is so much better than eliminating the truth in favor of speaking only love. People need the truth whether they are believers or not. The Bible truly is the Good News that sets us free from sin and death! The truth of God is beautiful! Why wouldn't we want to speak it!? Don't be a Christian who discards the beautiful truth of God for a cheap immitation of happiness in this life!!

So anyway, I guess that's how I would respond to her if I could. I'm curious of course what you all think so feel free to post comments!